The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Theory Of Decoration

Tapestries, Rugs and Carpets

Tapestries

The word tapestry is very loosely used in the decorating trade, and if one should enter the average shop and ask to be shown some tapestry, one might expect to see almost anything from wall paper to a hand woven fabric. To the latter is expressly reserved the term real tapestry.

Tapestries are made in both all over patterns and in pictorial subjects. The latter type are of prime importance as wall hangings, but are sometimes cut into smaller pieces for upholstery coverings or for small panels. Special designs were also made for particular use as chair seats and backs, but it is the pictorial type which claims the most interest today.

Tapestry weaving is an art by itself and is entirely independent of other arts. The design is the greatest element in the aesthetic value of a tapestry; materials and workmanship while important are secondary to the design. Good tapestries, other things being equal, are those in which the artist takes advantage of his material, obtains surface effects, mild gradations in color value and eliminates as much as possible either strong contrasts in light and shade such as may be obtained in both paintings and photography or strong relief or rotundity of form, which is one of the elements of the art of the sculptor.

Tapestries are woven on a loom. The chief material used is wool, though most modern tapestries have cotton warp threads. In antique tapestries silk is sometimes used in parts, and gold and silver threads are occasionally added to give greater brilliancy. There are two types of loom. One is known as the high warp, in which the frame is vertical, the warp threads running up and down.